EastEnders favourite Danny Dyer has revealed to Metro that he was more than happy to return to the BBC soap for its 40th anniversary – but bosses have ‘missed the boat’.

The show will celebrate the milestone with a live episode that invites viewers to decide the outcome of a love triangle.

It will also expose the attacker of Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), stage the return of Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) and explode the Queen Vic, leaving lives on the line.

And we could have had Mick at the centre of it all. Boo!

However, the Rivals star admits that he does still think Mick is dead, after the character was last seen plunging into the sea with his fate unknown.

‘I get this [requests for a return] every day still, and it’s a very much a compliment to me. I think that people still give a f***,’ he reasoned. ‘So look, they haven’t asked me. That’s all I can say. You know, I would have gone back for the 40th, I’ve said this many times, but they didn’t ask me to do that. I think they’ve got some other plans.

‘And so I think, because I’m not coming back for 40th I think I missed the boat – it needs to be something special, I think, for Mick to come back.’

Responding to the mystery of where Mick is, he continued: ‘I do think he’s dead. I don’t know where the f*** he is, but I think they missed the boat with it, you know, but I wish them all the best with it.

‘Maybe Fred Fred (His Rivals character, Freddie Jones) should turn up in EastEnders. That would f****** freak people out wouldn’t it?

He added: ‘I’m so proud of Mick Carter. He’s a big part of my life and if they were to approach me about something that was really clever, then I would probably say yes.’

Erm, bosses, get that phone in your hand, pronto.

It’s clear Danny still values the soap a lot as he piled praise on Kellie Bright, who plays Linda Carter, after a year of huge performances.

It’s because of this that he slaps down snobbery against soap actors.

‘It is the hardest f****** job you’ll ever do as an actor,’ he declared. ‘It’s a machine.

‘You’ve got like 16 scenes to shoot in a day, you know, no rehearsals, no talking about it – you turn up. You read it once, and then you start shooting.

‘So there is this a snobbery and I don’t think it’s is bad anymore. It used to be really bad. I mean, used to be in a soap. You come out of soap, you never work again, whereas now I feel like I’d like to think there’s a bit more respect. I’ve got so much respect for anybody that works in soap.’

On his own career, Danny is open about doing some great stuff and some s***. But he is ‘obsessed’ with what he does and the opportunities he gets.

‘Long may it continue,’ he smiled.

Amen to that! Now the countdown to The Rivals series 2 begins.